Возможен ли Перн без Арфистов? Нет, конечно невозможен. Но Арфист должен знать и уметь исполнять обязательные и учебные баллады, праздничные и не только праздничные песни. К сожалению, стихи МакКефри в русском переводе весьма немузыкальны (хотя... может, и их кто-нибудь сможет спеть?). Поэтому мы предлагаем здесь вашему вниманию оригинальные тексты некоторых песен. Возьмется ли их кто-нибудь перевести и положить на музыку? Будущие Арфисты, в первую очередь это касается вас, поскольку именно вы их будете петь!

1. The Duty Song (Обязательная баллада).
2. The Golden Egg of Faranth (Золотое Яйцо Фарант).
3. Lessa's Ride (Странствие Лессы)
4. The Question Song (Песенка-загадка)

Добавлены после игры:
5. Red Star Passes (Алая Звезда проходит)
6. March of the Wings (Марш Крыльев)

Это далеко не все песни Перна. Если у кого-нибудь есть еще - присылайте!

1. THE DUTY SONG
Энн Маккефри - copyright 1967

Oh, we must give honor to those dragons heed
In thought and in favor, in word and in deed
For our world will be lost or our world will be saved
From those dangers that are by the dragons braved.

Weaver and farmer and miner and smith
Tanner and herdsman, all lord holders with
Our harpers attuned to the lessons we learn-
Remember our duty to those who save Pern.

We’ll nurture our dragons, the queens rule their bands;
Their clutches will shell on the Hatching Ground sands.
We’ll Search out the riders who will love and endure
With their dragonmates keeping our planet secure.

We rise from the Weyr on our dragonmates bold,
Aloft in the sky, Bronze, Brown Blue, Green and Gold.
Wheeling and turning, the hungry Threads burning
A dragon must fly when there are Threads in the sky.

Oh, Lord of the Hold, you must keep your charge sure
Behind metal doors, with your people secure.
See well to the herdbeast, keep cellars well stored
Lest Fall leave you hungry and Holdless and scored.

Oh, we must give honor to those dragons heed
In thought and in favor, in word and in deed,
For our world will be lost or our world will be saved
From those dangers that are by the dragons braved.

2. THE GOLDEN EGG OF FARANTH
Энн Маккефри - copyright 1967

By the Golden Egg of Faranth,
by the Weyrwoman, wise and true,
Breed a flight of Bronze and Brown wings,
Breed a flight of Green and Blue,
Breed riders, strong and daring,
Dragon-loving, born as hatched,
Flight of hundreds soaring skyward,
Man and dragon fully matched.

By the teaching of the Harpers,
Healer, fisherman and smith,
From the chambers of the craft-halls,
Forge our destiny in myth.
Raise a glass in praise of weavers,
Give the Lord Holders their due,
And in all things trust the weyrfolk
For their cause is just and true.

From the distant, burning Red Star,
Shining strands of silver Thread-
Heed the warning of the Star Stones;
Hear the whispers of the dead.
Hail the dragons and their riders,
perched on high in lofty weyrs.
Watch the skies while Pern lies sleeping;
Learn the lessons of the years.

3. LESSA'S RIDE
Энн Маккефри - copyright 1967

NB: События, описанные в этой песне, к отыгрываемому времени еще не произошли. Поэтому, скорее всего, эту песню можно исполнять только как иносказание, при этом без последних двух куплетов.


Black, blacker, blackest,
And cold beyond all frozen things.
Where is between when there is naught
To life but fragile dragon wings?

Cold as death, death-bearing
Stay and die, unguided.
Brave and braving, linger-
This way was twice decided.

A fleck of red in a cold night sky.
A drop of blood to guide them by.
Turn away, Turn away, Turn, be gone.
A Red Star leads the riders on.

How shall they last the long journey
Lured on but by this woven star?
How can they find that which they seek
And make their way home from afar?

What can they say to bring forward
The weyrfolk from another time?
Is hope merely illusion
That clings to life in desperate minds?

Yet promise lives by those of heart-
Salvation lies within the song,
Revealed by Lessa, Weyrwoman --
There will be five weyrs strong!

4. THE QUESTION SONG
Энн Маккефри - copyright 1967

Gone away, gone ahead,
Echos roll unanswered.
Empty, open, dusty, dead.
Why have all the Weyrfolk fled?

Where have dragons gone together
Leaving weyrs to wind and weather,
Setting herdbeasts free of tether;
Gone, our safeguards, gone, but wither?

Have they flown to some new weyr
Where cruel Threads some others fear?
Are they worlds away from here?
Why, oh why the empty weyr?

5. RED STAR PASSES
Энн Маккефри - copyright 1967

Seas boil, mountains move,
Sands heat, dragons prove,
Red Star passes.

Stones pile, fires burn,
Green withers. Arm Pern!
Red Star passes.

Star Stone watch, Scan sky.
Ready the weyrs. Riders fly!
Red star passes.

6. MARCH OF THE WINGS
Энн Маккефри - copyright 1967

Drummer, beat, and piper, blow,
Harper, strike, and soldier, go.
Free the flame and sear the grasses
Till the dawning Red Star passes.

From the Weyr and from the Bowl
Bronze and Brown and Blue and Green,
Rise the dragonmen of Pern,
Aloft, on wing, seen, then unseen.

Dragonman avoid excess
Greed will bring the Weyr distress;
To the ancient Laws adhere,
Prospers thus the Dragon-weyr.

(other verses that could fit:)
Weyrman, watch; Weyrman, learn
Something new in every Turn.
Oldest may be coldest, too.
Sense the right; find the true!

Weaver, Miner, Harper, Smith,
Tanner, Farmer, Herdsman, Lord,
Gather, wingsped, listen well
To the Weyrman's urgent word.